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Professional Social Media Objective Setting:

Research, Planning, Composition, Evaluation

1 Research

The Role of Research in Strategic Planning

Monitoring the social, technical, and political environment is the first step in the process.

With research, practitioners can present and advocate proposals supported by evidence and theory.

Define the problem and/or opportunity (What’s really the root of it?)

2. Planning

Should reflect the problems or opportunities defined in the

Research (step 1).

Should never stand in isolation.

Must make sense within the context of an organization’s broader vision, mission and operational goals.

Excuses for not planning

We don’t have time.

Why plan when things are changing so fast?

We get paid for results, not planning.

We’re doing OK without a plan.

Target Publics

"Who—internal and external—must the program respond to, reach and affect?"

There is no “general public.”

Instead, communicate and build relationships with target publics or strategic publics.

Publics across situations -- Groups of people that share something in common, regardless of their situation.

Identify key publics, identify goals, articulate objectives, determine strategies and tactics.

Create a close linkage between the:

Overall goal

Objectives set for each public

Strategies and tactics for each objective

What Are Goals?

A goal is a statement rooted in your business’s mission or vision. Using every day language, a goal acknowledges what you want to achieve and how you hope to achieve it.

A goal is stated in general terms and lacks any kind of measurement. The difference between goals and objectives can be summed up like this:

“Goals provide the direction, while objectives pinpoint the destination.”

  • Communication goals can be categorized as relating to three different types of management situations:

  • Reputation management goals: These deal with identity and perception of your business.

  • Relationship management goals: These focus on how the business connects with its publics.

Task management goals: These are concerned with getting certain things done, such as driving sales or generating more leads.

Please bear in mind that it is unlikely, even unnecessary, that every campaign will have each type of goal. You can mix and match these however you deem appropriate for your specific campaign.

http://mattsouthern.com/2013/01/23/social-media-goals-for-business/

Objectives

Specific milestones toward achieving goal (e.g. Using social media, get 5 new leads by week 12)

Objectives represent the specific knowledge, opinion, and behavioral outcomes to be achieved for each target public.

Why are objectives important?

They provide focus and direction for developing program strategies and tactics.

They offer guidance and motivation to those implementing the program.

They spell out criteria for monitoring progress and assessing impact.

"What must be achieved with each public to order to accomplish the objective?"

Strategies

The conceptual approach for achieving objectives (e.g. social media campaign)

  • Strategy refers to the overall concept, approach, or general plan to achieve an objective. (e.g. focusing on homeowners with an informational campaign)
  • Action and communication strategies - How to say something and what to say, but also what to do. (e.g. what will that post say? How will you get it to your target public?)

Tactics

The specific actions required to accomplish strategies (e.g. like popular local companies on FB; find a local blogger to write about us and link to our FB)

Tactics refer to the actual events, media, and methods used to implement the strategy.

Action Strategy and Tactics

“What internal changes must occur in the organization to reach the desired objectives?” (strategy)

“What specific actions must occur internally for organizational changes to happen?” (tactics)

“What is the budget available to implement these internal changes?”

Communication Strategy and Tactics

“How will the company best reach its target publics?” (strategy)

“What specific message content must be communicated to achieve the outcomes stated in the objectives?” (tactics)

“What specific media best deliver that content to the target publics?” (tactics)

“What is the budget available to implement this program?

3. Communication

Coordinating Action and Communication

“Do organizational actions correspond to organizational communications?”

“Is the organization just ‘talking the talk’ or is it actually ‘walking the walk’?”

4. Evaluation

"How will the outcomes specified in your goals and objectives be measured?"

"How will the results of the evaluations be reported to others and used to make changes?"

1. Determine the program goal (What’s the desired end result and when do you want it happen by?)

2. What’s the strategy? (Learn the difference between a strategy, objective and tactic! A strategy is the “overall action and communication plan for achieving the program goal.”)

3. Determine the target audiences and objectives Consider internal AND external audience members – employees, media, government officials, etc. Make sure your objectives are S.M.A.R.T. (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound).

"What is the desired situation?“

“By when?”

Goals

The desired outcomes (e.g. increase sales in Sonoma County)

Forbes says:

  • A goal is a broad primary objective
  • A strategy is the approach you take to achieve a goal.
  • An objective is a measurable step you take to achieve a strategy.
  • A tactic is a tool you use in pursing an objective associated with a strategy.

For the purposes of your portfolio, plan to include strategies and tactics in "Activites"

Here comes all the fun – and the hard work. You’ve done your research. You’ve defined the problem. You’ve designed your plan. Now it’s time to put it into action! Now is when you can start determining what tactics will be used to achieve the stated objectives and start doing the campaign.

Action Tactics – What do we need to do to ensure this certain objective is met, or exceeded?

Communication Tactics – What is the message we need to communicate? (Remember which audience you are communicating with. What you tell employees may not be the same as what you tell media. Jargon could play a role, etc. Also consider which channel(s) will be the best delivery method.

Program Implementation Plans – Who’s going to do what and when? (Have a schedule and define responsible parties from the beginning! This is SO important. You don’t want all your hard work in planning to be delayed or messed up because something was overlooked.)

The campaign is over, but your work isn’t done yet! Did it work? Was the goal met? Were the objectives and strategies met or were there issues? Measuring your outcome(s) is just as important as measuring sales after an ad campaign.

Evaluation Research Process

  • Formative research: conducted before and during implementation to inform planning and program adjustment.
  • Summative research: conducted after the program to assess progress and to document program impact.

Coordinating action and communication

Communication strategy supports the action program:

To inform target publics of the action;

To persuade those publics to support and accept the action; and possibly

To instruct publics in skills needed to translate intention into action.

Evaluation Plans – First you had to determine how the outcomes would be measured. Then after the project you have to apply those measurements and determine the results. (Did we get the behavior change we were looking for?)

Use theory and evidence in a four-step problem-solving process:

1 Research: Defining the problem (or opportunity).

Here, the focus is on messaging.

Message content strategy deals with how messages are developed, created and expressed.

Message delivery strategy deals with the message dissemination channels.

Both strategies must be carefully planned.

Evaluation Research Steps

  • Establish agreement on the uses and purposes of the evaluation.
  • Secure organizational commitment to evaluation and make research part of the program.
  • Write program objectives in observable and measurable terms.
  • Determine the best way to gather evidence.
  • Use evaluation findings to manage the program.
  • Report evaluation results to management.
  • Add results to professional knowledge.

2 Planning: Planning and programming.

Feedback & Program Adjustment – It’s not good enough to just evaluate the program and determine if it worked. You have to then apply that knowledge, plan, etc. to future programs. (If your feedback indicated employee dissatisfaction, what will you do as a result?)

3 Communication: Taking action and communicating.

-Use persuasion techniques

-Framing the message

Putting the message into a context that facilitates compliance, understanding or agreement.

-tailor your message to your audience

-ex.) use language that will appeal to your audience

-Making message appealing for news media

-newsworthiness: impact, proximity, timeliness, novelty, conflict, etc.

4 Evaluation: Evaluating the program.

Program Implementation Plans

“What are the actual steps necessary for executing the planned tactics for action and communication?”

“Who will be responsible for implementing each of the action and communication tactics?”

"What is the sequence of events and schedule?"

Encoding and decoding the message

Denotative meaning is the common dictionary definition.

Use words with strong denotative meanings when trying to get your audience to think objectively

Connotative meaning is the emotional meaning we get out of words because of our experiences.

Use words with strong connotative meanings when trying to get your audience to feel something

Example: home, family, etc.

Impact criteria and methods

Impact measures document the extent to which the outcomes spelled out in objectives for each target public and the overall program goal were achieved.

Knowledge gain

Measures the number of people who learn the message content.

Opinion change

Measures the number of people who change or form opinions on a subject.

Attitude change

Measures the number of people who change or form attitudes on a subject.

Behavior change

Measures number of people acting in desired fashion.

Repeated behavior

Measures the number of people who continue or sustain the desired behavior.

Goal achieved

What was the ultimate result of the campaign?

Social and cultural change

Did the campaign make a positive contribution?

The process is continuous, overlapping, and cyclical.

Implementation criteria and methods

Distribution

The number of messages distributed.

Placement

The number of messages placed in the media.

Potential audience

The number of people potentially exposed to program messages.

Attentive audience

The number of people who attend to messages and attend events.

Preparation criteria and methods

Information base

How adequate is the background information?

Program content

What is the organization and appropriateness of program and message content?

Presentation quality

What is the quality of professional performance?

Step 1: Situational Analysis

Communication audit: a systematic documentation of an organization’s communication efforts to understand how it currently communicates with its publics.

What to Consider for Your Portfolio

Step 1: Problem Statement

Internal factors: organizational policies, procedures, and actions related to the problem situation.

Is written in the present tense. “What’s happening now?”

Avoid “will,” “could,” and “should”

1. The Problem, Concern or Opportunity

"What's happening now?"

2. Situation Analysis (Internal and External)

"What positive and negative forces are operating (SWOT analysis)?

"Who is involved and/or affected?"

"How are they involved and/or affected?"

3. The Problem Statement

"What is the problem or opportunity I should address?”

Describes the situation in specific and measurable terms.

What is the source of concern? Where is this a problem? Who is affected? How are they affected? Why is this a concern?

All that is known about the situation including:

Its history

Those involved or affected internally and externally

SWOT analysis examines:

(S) Organizational Strengths

(W) Organizational weaknesses

…to identify

(O) opportunities

(T) threats

Does not imply solutions or place blame.

External factors: both positive and negative.

Stakeholder analysis: who is involved and affected by the situation. Any person or organization that is dependent on the organization and could be affected by the situation.

Resources & References

Special thanks to Emily Acosta Lewis for her her Powerpoint and support

Public Relations Strategy – 10 Steps to Ensure Success -- http://getpushing.com/blog/2012/02/public-relations-strategy-10-steps-to-ensure-success/

Understanding Goals, Strategies, Objectives and Tactics in the Age of Social http://www.forbes.com/sites/mikalbelicove/2013/09/27/understanding-goals-strategies-objectives-and-tactics-in-the-age-of-social/

Set Social Media Marketing Goals For Your Business With These 14 Steps

http://mattsouthern.com/2013/01/23/social-media-goals-for-business/

“Strategy is a driving force in any business or organization. It’s the intellectual force that helps organize, prioritize, and energize what they do. No strategy; no energy. No strategy; no direction. No strategy; no momentum. No strategy; no impact.”

-- Jim Lukaszewski

Anatomy of an Objective

Target public

Nature of intended change

TargetDate

By July 1, to increase percentage of home owners from three to 25 percent who know that wildfires destroyed more than 2,500 homes during the past three years.

Amount desired change

Knowledge outcome to be achieved

Brainstorming Grid

Goal:___________________________________________

and at: http://bit.ly/1aIvE8g

John Kenyon says:

(Forbes) flips strategy and objectives (from Emily's example, above), which I have seen before. After goals, some folks start with objectives and have strategies under the objectives, some folks create multiple strategies to achieve goals and have objectives for each strategy. Either way Goals are paramount and tactics are subservient.

Levels of Evaluation

Implementation Summary

Credibility

of information and sources

Context

of message

Content

of message

Clarity

of message

Continuity and consistency

of message with organization’s mission

Channels

of communication used for message delivery

Capability of the audience

to understand and listen to the message

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